Entries Tagged 'chocolate' ↓

We are finally publishing Dr. Big D’s travelogue from our Outer Hebridean Ice Cream Adventure. We are also producing a short film about this trip and will keep you posted about its progress. Enjoy!

Why did we choose an ice cream adventure in the Outer Hebrides? Was it just to make life difficult for ourselves? You could argue that if that was the idea, we should have gone to Iraq, Nepal or China. Scotland on the other hand is the itinerant cranker’s dream. The sparse but widely dispersed communities mean that there’s an abundance of wee shops dotted around. Even if you’re not an ice cream maker, the basic ingredients of ice cream (cream, milk and sugar) are staples so most shops stock them. But what about the ice, you may ask? Well due to the popularity of frozen ready-meals most of these little shops also have freezers and many a modern Scot now quite likes an ice cube in his dram. Hence ice is also relatively easy to come by too. And who could resist holidaying in the stunning scenery of the Scottish islands especially in that perfect time of year when there is still daylight but the midges haven’t got going yet.
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Though our chocolate gelato recipe produces an incredible result, it’s an awful lot of work and takes a long time to prepare and chill before you can freeze it. I eventually decided that there is no reason why the Russell Recipe should not produce a quality chocolate ice cream.

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When I was a kid I did not like chocolate ice cream. Strange as it seems now, I didn’t really have any interest in the stuff. If I was given a serving of Neapolitan ice cream I would devour the pink and white stripes as quickly as possible to avoid accidentally eating any meltings from the brown stripe. Don’t get me wrong, I always loved chocolate, especially dark chocolate. I didn’t even understand why I didn’t like chocolate ice cream.

And then several years ago I went to Italy. Italians don’t mess around with ice cream. True Italian gelato can be found in few places in the world, but in Italy there seems to be a law requiring at least one quality gelateria in every square mile. Naturally, I did my best to try them all. But after 4 or more triple-scoop cones per day for a couple weeks, I admitted defeat. It would take me several lifetimes to sample every flavour in every gelateria. But along the way, I came across something very exciting: delicious chocolate gelato!

I asked Aunt Nancy if she knew how to make chocolate ice cream, but she said Mike and Sam had tried to use chocolate milk in the Russell recipe and had unsatisfying results. This caused me to question my firm lifelong belief that the Russell Recipe never fails. (Note: Lately I have reconfirmed this undeniable truth by making a successful chocolate and coconut ice cream with the Russell Recipe…)

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